Monsanto is an agriculture company that is well known for creating pesticides such as Roundup. These pesticides are bad for the environment and believed to be bad for health as well.
As written in Scitable, a publication from Nature Education:
After countless studies, pesticides have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, ADHD, and even birth defects. Pesticides also have the potential to harm the nervous system, the reproductive system, and the endocrine system. Pesticides can even be very harmful to fetuses because the chemicals can pass from the mother during pregnancy or if a woman nurses her child. Although one piece of fruit with pesticides won’t kill you, if they build up in your body, they can be potentially detrimental to your health and should be avoided as much as possible.
Monsanto has been the target of many lawsuits lately, and was recently on trial for crimes against humanity. Add one more lawsuit to the list, as the city of Seattle sues Monsanto for contamination of the Lower Duwamish River.
This is the sixth city that has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto.
The prosecutors claim that the Lower Duwamish River was contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and that Monsanto continues to produce these substances knowing the health and environmental dangers.
“Long after the dangers of PCBs were widely known, Monsanto continued its practice of protecting its business interests at our expense,” Seattle attorney Pete Holmes said in a statement. “The city intends to hold Monsanto accountable for the damage its product wreaked on our environment.”
PCBs are chemicals that were used in paint, caulks, electrical equipment, and more. They were banned in the 1970s because of health risks.
However, the city of Seattle claims that Monsanto concealed some of the health risks, and actually increased PCB production even after the ban.
PCBs have been found in 82 percent of drainage pipes around the Lower Duwamish River.
The Environmental Protection Agency is now working to clean up the river.
“The city will incur significant costs to remove PCBs from stormwater and wastewater effluent flowing into the Lower Duwamish, costs that should not be borne by the city or by its taxpayers but by the company that knew its product would cause this contamination,” John Fiske of Gomez Trial Attorneys said in a statement.
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REFERENCES:
1. “The Dangers of Pesticides.” Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.
2. “Seattle Sues Monsanto over Chemical Contamination of River.” RT International. RT, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.
